Sustainability is advancing: Five key takeaways from Climate Week
October 09, 2024
I had the opportunity to attend my first Climate Week in NYC alongside my colleague, Tessa Denison. The two primary events we attended were the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit and Ceres at Climate Week, specifically the Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance (CEVA) sessions. The UN sessions brought together leaders from all sectors to review the private sector’s contribution to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The CEVA sessions brought together 35 companies committed to fleet electrification.
I wanted to share five key takeaways from my Climate Week experience.
- Collaboration is key
No company can be truly sustainable operating in a silo. It takes our collective efforts to have a meaningful impact on addressing global challenges. Success in sustainability hinges on robust collaboration both outside and inside the organization.
So, what does this look like in practice?
With most companies, Scope 3 emissions comprise the majority of their emissions, so it’s important to assess your supply chain and partner with your suppliers to reduce emissions collectively. If you have thousands of suppliers, start small. Identify your top 50 Tier 1 heaviest emitting suppliers in your greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and prioritize working with those suppliers on reduction efforts. - Knowledge is power
A basic understanding of GHG emissions is crucial for everyone if we hope to reach our collective sustainability goals. Comprehensive knowledge at all levels of an organization supports better decision-making and alignment with strategic goals.
My experience has been that employees want to know how sustainability relates to them. They often ask, “How can I impact our sustainability efforts in what I do in my role day-to-day?”
So, as sustainability professionals, part of what we try to do is contextualize the concepts. Understanding what that means for you as an individual versus this massive intangible concept can help people understand the importance of sustainability. - Leveraging disclosure for strategic growth
Effective reporting goes beyond compliance. It’s about sharing lessons learned, uncovering business opportunities, sparking strategic innovation, and identifying and investing in the sustainable competitive edge of a business.
This is the real power of comprehensive and effective reporting. When you disclose your data year over year in a data-forward approach, those numbers speak for themselves. They will point to business growth opportunities that may have otherwise been overlooked. - Embracing progress over perfection
When it comes to sustainability efforts, don’t let the quest for perfection stall progress. Aim for meaningful improvements rather than flawless outcomes. With only 17% of the UN SDGs on track, it’s imperative we push forward.
And don’t be afraid to set ambitious targets even if they seem daunting. The reality is it will be messy, and you might not nail it right away because you have to try different things to find out what works. Just keep moving forward, and even if you fall short by 10%, you've still made great progress. - Data-driven insights
Gone are the days of unsubstantiated sustainability storytelling. The focus now is on data-driven insights that provide real value. Meaningful data informs strategic decisions and drives innovation by uncovering actionable trends and opportunities. Sustainability reporting is entering a new era. What was once voluntary non-financial reporting is transitioning to required disclosure rooted in science and data.
Regulations like the California Air Resource Board, inclusive of Advanced Clean Fleets, Cars and Trucks, and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), signify that governments are serious about climate change and focused on data comparability and transparency. And to get granular for a moment for fleets when we leverage telematics, we are sitting on a wealth of data about the vehicles we manage, their emissions profile, and levers we can pull to further reduce.
Sheri McGrath and Tessa Denison
Making an impact collectively
The Sustainability field is evolving. I hope these takeaways can help advance sustainability in your organization. I left Climate Week more optimistic than ever. We have bright minds collaborating, challenging the status quo, embracing new technologies, and thinking of new solutions. While sometimes what we each own at our companies can feel small, collectively, we are making a big impact.
If you’d like to learn more about sustainability at Element or how to decarbonize your company’s fleet, feel free to reach out anytime.
